Eric
I spend a bit of time in the US (heading over again on 12 July) and am considering attending ? Great Lakes, but I am well aware that for those who have to make the trip especially, the cost is a real issue.
Why don't you investigate an Asian conference? It's a few years since I was in Bangkok, a bit of shopping and a visit with the family to somewhere nice up North sounds great!
Regards
JR
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1